Latest Developments in Syrian Farce

French Journalist Thierry Meyssan has another excellent article on what's really happening with Syria.

Reading this will give you a sense of deja vu, I can virtually guarantee. The contrast between the story as spun by mainstream media, (including, sadly, Al Jazeera), and Meyssan's account of what's really going on is almost surrealistic.

It's the same old, same old Zionist propaganda machine at work again, as abetted and enabled by their lackeys at the US State Department, but Meyssan shares with us a few little tidbits that the MSM are not covering, such as the following quote -

General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General James Mattis, commander of United States Central Command, finally admitted that the U.S. Air Force was not in a position to bomb Syria, if ordered to, considering that the country is now equipped with Russia’s most effective anti-aircraft system in the world.

Oh my.

Yalta

This weekend is the 67th anniversary of the Yalta Conference, which was held February 4th through 11th of 1945, between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. The (ostensible) purpose of the conference was to decide the shape of the postwar world.

"Boring, Possum, boring...", you say, "that was a long fucking time ago".

Yes, it was a few years ago, but the world we live in today was shaped by the decisions taken at Yalta.

For example, it was at Yalta that the agreement was formed for the structure of the United Nations, in particular the existence of the Security Council, and the provision of permanent seats on that council for the major powers, and the veto power which those with permanent seats would wield. And the only substantial change in the Security Council between then and now has been the addition of the People's Republic of China as a permanent member.

It was at Yalta that Roosevelt and Stalin agreed that part of the "reparations" to be paid to the USSR by Germany would be in the form of forced labor. This was an appallingly cruel decision on the part of the Western leaders, one which doomed tens of thousands of German POWs to years of destructive labor under inhuman conditions. Many of those POW's died or were murdered by their Soviet captors. Read the memoirs of Hans von Luck for a detailed description of what I'm talking about.

It was also at Yalta that the entirety of Eastern Europe was condemned to half a century of Russian occupation, a decision that was made in spite of the fact that not one single representative of any of those Eastern European nations was present.

As an example of how incredibly naive Roosevelt was about Stalin, let me offer you this quote -

I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. ... and I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.

It's enough to make you shake your head in utter disbelief.

And that, dear reader, is our history lesson for the day. Additional reading here

Persian Gulf Follies

Yesterday, it was reported that Iran has threatened to close the vital Strait of Hormuz if the USA follows through on plans to impose a total embargo upon the Iranian oil industry.

Today, we are informed that our nation's government has responded with counter-threats, and that a representative of the US 5th Fleet, (which is permanently assigned to the Persian Gulf, and based in Bahrain), chimed in with further hawkish saber-rattling.

This raises a number of questions in the tiny marsupial mind of your faithful correspondent. Not least of these would be, why do we have an independent statement by the 5th Fleet? Is the US Navy now a power unto itself? Does the State department no longer handle diplomatic chores for the United States of (corporate) Amerika? A minor point, you may opine, but still one more indicator that we live in a post-democratic nation-state.

On to the substance of the issue.

The painful part about being a student of history, is that one can often see the parallels, and guess what happens next. The hazardous part about being a student of history, is that one can often guess wrong. None the less, let's play the game of historical parallels for a bit, shall we?

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred on December 7th of 1942, roughly seventy years and three weeks ago, should not have been a surprise. The Anglo-Dutch-US consortium which controlled all oil resources in the Pacific at that time had imposed a complete oil embargo on Japan, using the colorful excuse of Japanese expansion in China.

Yes, I use the term "colorful excuse" deliberately. The Rape of Nanking occurred in 1937, and its details were known in western capitals within weeks, at most. So it took the powers-that-be four long years to decide that those naughty Japanese must be punished? Horseshit. In 1937, nobody in the West gave a damn about the Chinese. By 1941, Roosevelt was desperately seeking an excuse to drag the USA into another European war.

And so the device of an oil embargo was decided upon. Japan, then as now, was totally dependent upon oil imports. US economists predicted that the Japanese economy would collapse within six months without oil. And yet, when Japan responded with a military assault upon the colonial possessions of the embargoing powers, we were caught by surprise? Again I say, horseshit. Anyone who knew anything about Japanese culture and history could have predicted that Japan would fight rather than fold. And even a cursory study of Japanese military history would have revealed that the surprise attack was an old favorite tactic.

Now fast-forward 70 years. Granted Iran and Japan are very different nations, with very different cultures and historical traditions. Imperial Japan was territorially expansionist; Iran hasn't invaded a neighbouring country for over 200 years. The Achilles' Heel of Imperial Japan was oil imports, and that of Iran is its oil exports.

And yet, there are parallels. In both cases, the nation being embargoed was perceived to be a threat to the power of the US Navy. In both cases, the nation being embargoed was perceived to be a threat to the colonial practices of the Western Powers. And in both cases, the subtle hand of the Zionists was at work behind the scenes.

Whoa, Possum, you say! That came out of left field; how the fuck do you figure that?

In 1941, the Zionists wanted the USA committed to the European disaster that we now call World War II, both in order to defeat Germany and also to follow through on plans for the creation of Israel.

Here in late 2011, the Zionists want the USA committed to war with Iran, in order to further the interests of Israel, or at least the perceived interests of the ultra-conservative cabal which currently controls Israel's government.

(And this is as good a place as any to gently remind ourselves that there are good people in Israel, and blaming all Israelis for the horrid crimes of the Israeli government would be every bit as unjust as blaming all Americans for the horrid crimes of the US government.)

So, once again, we have an oil embargo being used to provoke an armed conflict. And yet, the world of 2011 is vastly different from that of 1941. Today, we have stern warnings against precipitate action from the Russians and Chinese, both of whom have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, with the veto power granted by that permanent seat.

As horrid as the thought may be, as painfully as my heart cries out in grief for the potential suffering of the common people both in Iran and here in the USA, I am very much afraid that the reactionaries will succeed in provoking a shooting war involving Iran, sometime in 2012.

What the consequences of that war will be, dear reader, that I cannot begin to say. And neither can the criminal psychopaths who control Washington DC and Tel Aviv.



(Open Salon readers can watch the video here)

Iran: The Other Side Of The Story

Once again, the War Drums are being beaten hard and loud against Iran, beaten by the Israel Lobby and its paid lackeys.

First came the farcical accusation of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, a story so patently threadbare that even reliably conservative establishment media outlets questioned its credibility.

Now we have hysterical accusations from the new US-sponsored head of the IAEA, (International Atomic Energy Agency), to the effect that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons program. Let us remember, at this point, that the US spent years trying to get the IAEA under al-Baradei to issue such an indictment. But al-Baradei was, (and is), his own man, and stated repeatedly that there was no evidence of Iran attempting to build a nuclear weapon.

So, in detail, what do these accusations consist of? They consist of two things.

First, an accusation that the Iranians have attempted to create a computer model of an atomic weapon. Excuse me, but, how many game companies have done the same thing? Attempting to create a computer model of something is not the same as making the thing itself.

Second, IAEA under Amano, its new puppet boss, has accused Iran of doing preliminary design work on a metal casing which could possibly be used to contain a nuclear weapon, if one was ever constructed.

And so, dear reader, do you begin to see how incredibly contrived and insubstantial these accusations are? And is it coincidence that this is all happening, in the IAEA which is now coltrolled by the United States, and in the US media which is largely controlled by Zionists, at the same time that Israel is openly threatening to attack Iran? Right, of course it is! Why, you'd have to be crazy to suggest some sort of conspiracy...

But all is not rosy for the Zionist plan. France has issued its usual strongly-worded caution against military aggression, (as they hose the dust of Libya off their warplanes), but France isn't really going to do anything.

Russia, on the other hand, has issued a blunt warning that any attack on Iran, "could have severe consequences and even lead to war". This is Russia's backyard, let us remember, and a region with a long history of Russian interest and intervention, a record going back to the Czars.

So, what are the Iranians themselves saying about all this? Below is a video from Press TV examining the subject at some length. Press TV is an organ of the Iranian government, so by all means keep your salt shaker handy. But while their opinions, (as reflected in their choice of adjectives), is definitely slanted, I have never caught them in an outright falsehood. In my experience, when Press TV cites hard facts, those facts are accurate. Which is certainly more than one can say for Fox News.




(Open Salon readers can watch the video here)

Russia Recognizes Independent Palestine

Occasionally in the affairs of this world, a nation makes a quiet diplomatic move which has far-reaching significance beyond the immediate moment. Yesterday in Jericho, after a meeting with PA president Mahmud Abbas, the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev affirmed recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

This is significant in more than one way. The ironic significance is that the old USSR was the first nation to recognize the state of Israel in 1948, (with the USA a very close second).

The greater significance is that this clearly signals the intention of Russia to return to the arena of active participation in Middle East politics.

Following the conflict of October 1973, variously referred to as either the Six Days War or the Yom Kippur War, the Russians were widely discredited in the Middle East. Egypt, for one, sent the Russians packing, and aligned itself with the USA.

Now all that may be changing. Granted, the Russia of today is not the Soviet Union of the 70's and 80's, but Russians are still Russians. That has been true since the days of the Tsars.

Afghanistan Milestone

Today marks a milestone in the US occupation of Afghanistan. Today, US forces have officially been in Afghanistan for the same 3,338 days that it was occupied by the Soviet Union.

Those of you who have been reading my scribbles here for any length of time, know by now that I do not support the Afghanistan War, not even a little bit. So, rather than offer any further commentary on this grim anniversary, I will post these comments by a Russian veteran of the nation that has been called The Graveyard of Empires.

Gulf Disaster Part II - The Gulf Stream Is Dying

It has been brought to my attention that the contaminated seafood I wrote about yesterday is not the worst effect of the massive disaster inflicted upon us by BP and the Obama Administration.

It would appear, from satellite data, that the Gulf Stream is dying or has already died.

I confess, I needed a refresher on how the Gulf Stream works. Essentially, a warm water current comes up the NE coast of South America, does a loop in the Gulf of Mexico, and then passes by the tip of Florida before heading diagonally across the Atlantic to pass by the British Isles and Scandinavia. Technically, the part before the tip of Florida has a different name, but it's all one continous current, or it used to be.

The dumping of a billion gallons of crude oil, and two million gallons of toxic dispersant, (brand name Corexit), into the Gulf of Mexico, however, has screwed this up royally. Instead of flowing across the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream is now breaking down in a series of whirlpools in a region that stretches from off the Carolinas to the mid-Atlantic.

Here is a graphic showing how the Gulf Stream is supposed to flow. Apologies for not embedding it, but if I reduced it to fit, you wouldn't be able to see WTF was going on.

Here is a site with weekly-updated satellite data.

Here is an archived graphic from late October of 2009, roughly a year ago, from the same site, showing the same data.

At first glance, the two appear substantially the same. But look at the top right corner. In the graphic from a year ago, the stream continues off the map, toward the UK. In the most recent graphics, nothing makes it off the map. The Gulf Stream is breaking up in mid-Atlantic.

What does this mean? Well, for starts, it's the warmth of the Gulf Stream that keeps Europe from freezing solid in the winter. And it's the Gulf Stream, continuing as the North Atlantic current, that flows over the top of the Asian landmass and determines weather across much of Russia.

Russia, which has had the hottest Summer on record, causing massive wildfires, and devastating their wheat crop to the point where all exports have been banned.

So, dear reader, it would appear that BP, with the help and collusion of our oh-so-dearly-beloved President, has screwed us at least three different ways. The Gulf seafood is not safe to eat, much of the Atlantic seafood will soon be unsafe to eat, and the weather is screwed up to the point that grain production will be curtailed severely, has already been curtailed severely.

Can you say rising food prices, boys and girls? And at the same time, we can look forward to renewed inflation, since Ben Bernanke has just decided to print another 900 billion dollars in paper money, and give it to the bankers.

Because, after all, those poor bankers really need the help...

Russian Leaders Argue on Twitter, During State Council Meeting

Sweet immortal gods have mercy, what have we done to the world? Somewhere, Josef Stalin is rolling over in his grave.

This morning's edition of Foreign Policy had a vastly amusing little report on a Twitter-borne spat between Russian President Dmitry Medviedev and a regional governor named Nikita Belykh. The exchange of messages, complete with smiley faces and sad faces, had your favorite beady-eyed varmint howling with laughter.

Unfortunately the actual exchange was in Russian, so we Americans have to rely on a translation, and Russia Today posted a rather more limited version of the tweets.